For convenience purposes, it is well known to provide garage doors which utilize a motor to provide opening and closing movements of the door. Motors may also be coupled with other types of movable barriers such as gates, windows, retractable overhangs and the like. An operator is employed to control the motor and related functions with respect to the door. The operator receives command signals for the purpose of opening and closing the door from a wireless remote, from a wired or wireless wall station or other similar device. It is also known to provide safety devices that are connected to the operator for the purpose of detecting an obstruction so that the operator may then take corrective action with the motor to avoid entrapment of the obstruction.
To assist in moving the garage door or movable barrier between limit positions, it is well known to use a remote radio frequency or infrared transmitter to actuate the motor and move the door in the desired direction. These remote devices allow for users to open and close garage doors without having to get out of their car. These remote devices may also be provided with additional features such as the ability to control multiple doors, lights associated with the doors, and other security features. As is well documented in the art, the remote devices and operators may be provided with codes that change after every actuation of the remote device so as to make it virtually impossible to “steal” a code and use at a later time for illegal purposes.
In order for a remote controlled device to work with an operator to control movement of the garage door, the operator must be programmed to learn the particular code for each transmitter. In the past, radio controls utilized a code setable switch, such as a ten- circuit dual in-line parallel (DIP) switch to set the data for both the transmitter and the receiver. Both the transmitter and the receiver's code switch would have to match for the transmitter to activate the receiver's output. This method did not allow for enough unique codes and was relatively easy for someone to copy the code and gain improper access. In summary, this process requires the setting of transmitter and receiver codes physically switched to identical settings for operation of the garage door.
Presently, most radio controls for garage doors use either a fixed code format wherein the same data for each transmission is sent, or a rolling-code format, wherein some or all of the data changes for each transmission. Data for each transmitter transmission is stored in non-volatile memory in the transmitter and is learned by the receiver during a learning process. The most common learning process is to put the receiver in a “learn” mode by momentarily pressing a push-button switch on the receiver. The receiver indicates that it is in a learning mode and awaits a transmitter transmission. Once a transmission is received from the remote control that is to be associated with the operator and once the code is validated, the transmitter data is stored in the receiver's non-volatile memory. The receiver then automatically returns to its normal mode of operation. During the receiver's normal mode of operation, subsequent received transmissions are compared with the stored data and if a match is found, an appropriate garage door function is activated. In summary, the learning process entails enabling the receiver's learn mode, activating the transmitter, validating and storing the data by the receiver and then returning the receiver to a normal mode.
Although the aforementioned methods and devices are sufficient for their stated purpose, they are subject to problems. For example, the transmission of the codes can be interrupted such that an improper code is learned during the learning process. This would then require repeating the process as needed. Therefore, there is a need for operators that provide more secure methods of learning transmitters.